A guy with the username Icefrog made a custom map for warcraft 3 and named it defense of the ancients or dota for short. It got popular but was limited by warcraft 3 (no matchmaking other than joining random rooms, you couldn't reconnect if you dc'd, you had to spend $40 to buy the warcraft battlechest, etc). Because Dota was so limited, a series of dota clones like LoL, HoN, LoCO, etc became popular by copying the base gameplay and making some minor adjustments. A couple of years ago valve approached Icefrog to make a FTP sequel to dota and that's how Dota 2 was born.

League of Legends and DOTA2 are rival games of sorts. They're both MOBAs and some people tend to think one is superior to the other, although neither party can argue such a thing without resorting to "**** you it's better than your game."

I find Dota and LoL have decent communities, in my experience of Dota people tend to be quite nice most of the time, sometimes you get people who will feed and blame you. You get a lot more arrogant people in LoL though, and the feeders blamers too.

Sorry if I just never felt to get DoTa 2. No one I know plays it, and there's nothing I know about it. Of course LoL is more fun. I don't play DoTa 2, so obviously LoL is more fun to me. It's your personal preference. I can't decide what I find fun.

the inherent problem with dota2 is that its is far to intricate to just pick up and learn. the heroes are complicated (not to mention the sheer number) and it doesn't do a good job of teaching you the core mechanics before just tossing you in.

on the other had LoL is quite simple by comparison. and while many "dedicated" gamers consider that to be its downfall that is actually what makes it a better game. simpler mechanics make for a more competitive enviornment, and also allow for casual gamers to still master the core mechanics without having to dedicate weeks to learning them.

TL;DR complexity for the sake of complexity is dota's downfall. LoL took a working model and made it accessible and for both casual and hardcore audiences.

DotA was never complex for complexity's sake. It just doesn't insult the gamer's intelligence. You're gonna lose when you're a scrub, but it's fair game because everyone is a scrub at some point.

DotA came first after all, and it didn't have anyone else to compete with. Each hero could be extremely versatile due to the possible item builds and complexity of his spells. Like themathguy said, in LoL everything is too uniformed. Each champion is either an AP build or an AD build. And while early game is pretty diverse (top, mid, jungling) it's no more diverse than DotA. Actually, in DotA you can do more early game - denying, blocking creeps, pulling creeps with neutral creeps, etc. The problem with LoL is late game where everyone just blurs together and it's all the same. The fights have little to do with the items and/or abilities, and just ganking formula.

Just because LoL is more successful as a game doesn't mean it's a better game. Just like McDonald's being a more successful restaurant doesn't mean that it's better than TGI Fridays. It's just more accessible and easier to order from.

I didn't want to bring graphics into this, because I know graphics doesn't make a game necessarily better, but cmon... DotA 2's graphics are much better than LoL's. Again, that alone doesn't make DotA 2 better, but it's definitely a plus.

-Comparing fast food restaurant with a sit-down restaurant isn't a both biased and flawed comparison in the slightest.
-The graphics for DotA 2 are built on a 8 1/2 year old engine. I don't see how you can make such claims and call them fact, even when it's an opinion piece to boot.

fast food and sit down restaurants are different but both are restaurants. They differ in quality and speed. LoL is like a fast food restaurant because it is widely accessible, cheap, and easy to use. DotA is more like TGI Fridays because the quality of the food is better, but you have to wait longer for it and pay more for it.

It was quite a fair analogy in my opinion. Unless you're arguing that LoL and DotA AREN'T different, then you'll have to take that up with the rest of the LoL community who claims that it is different.

And I'm sorry I didn't do explicit research on which engine is better. I truly am. But if DotA 2 LOOKS better than LoL, and it's running an inferior engine, that says more about LoL than about DotA. Careful about your arguments, man. All I was saying was that from an aesthetic standpoint, LoL has worse graphics (and by that I mean more cartoony). People would say that Borderlands 2 has worse graphics than Skyrim (Creation Engine), but Borderlands 2 (Unreal Engine 3) is running on a newer engine. So watch your words. You're being biased because you think that just because I think DotA 2 is better that I'm a DotA 2 fanboy.

If you got a spare key, I'll suck your di......I mean I'll take it off your hands. I just got my first PC in around 5 years so I'm lacking in games and I've wanted to try Dota for a while. I'm in the middle of midterms now but after I finish I should be free if you ever need some help (Although I can't promise I won't be terrible in the beginning). I'm steamcommunity.com/id/CaptainFALCONN if you are wiling to part with a key. Even if you aren't, I'm still CaptainFALCONN.

DotA 2 is admittedly a harder game to get into. You'll feel discouraged because it's confusing. It's quite complicated and the spells are very diverse. I remember hating DotA when I first started playing because I sucked so badly.

But my friends kept encouraging me to play, and eventually I got the hang of it. Now I have to say that DotA is better than LoL.

I have a few DotA 2 keys to give away. If you would like one, add me on steam and I'll send you it :)

My experience is that LoL can be for both casuals and more serious gaming, whilst Dota 2 isn't that great for casuals. Personally I like the LoL design better, but that's a matter of opinion. The LoL servers and client is more buggy, but that's probably because of the number of players. I haven't played Dota in over a month, but as far as I know, you can do much more in LoL and it's much more fun to play with friends. If you play solo, I think DotA would be slightly better, if you get enough into it.

Bottom line: LoL is great for casuals and for playing with friends, while both are good when you get higher up. If you want to get into MOBA games or wanna play casual, I strongly recommend LoL. It's much better to get into if you play with friends or pre-mades.

I like both games. But because I am arguing that DotA 2 is better, and some people are arguing against it, I have to reassert and reiterated my points. The more people discuss with me, the more of a DotA 2 fanboy I will look like because I'm defending my view.